Charita Bauer, Veteran Star Of `Guiding Light`

NEW YORK — Charita Bauer, who played matriarch Bert Bauer on radio and television in CBS` ``Guiding Light`` for nearly 40 years, has died at age 62 after a long illness.

Miss Bauer, a native of Newark, N.J., became a model when she was 8. She took the radio role of Bert Bauer in the late 1940s. When ``Guiding Light``

premiered on television in 1952, she commuted between radio and television studios to play the role.

In December, when she quit, she was the last original member of the TV cast. She died Thursday.

The congruence of surnames was a coincidence, but Miss Bauer`s real life was written into the script on two occasions: In the 1960s when she had uterine cancer and in 1984 when she suffered a leg amputation. In both instances, her character suffered the same health problems.

Miss Bauer made her Broadway debut in 1933 in ``Thunder on the Left,``

and also appeared in ``The Women,`` ``The Life of Riley`` and ``Good Morning, Corporal.`` In 1976 she toured in ``Plaza Suite`` with an all-soap-opera cast. Survivors include her father, George; her son, Michael Crawford; and a 4- year-old grandson, Alexander.